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Radiohead Knowledge Base:Blog Policy
Blogs are personal articles written by the users of the Radiohead Wiki. Many are written for entertainment purposes, others for reporting the latest News on the wiki and the greater Radiohead fan community at large. Because the blogs on the wiki are so popular and widely used, even by those who do not edit main space articles, rules of etiquette are required to tame the wild appendages it has grown. Interpersonal relations and blog commenting Our standard community guidelines dictate that inter-user communication must be civil, despite disagreements, dislikes, and the vast array of opinions that color our community. This goes without saying. The golden-rule, axiom of axioms, "Be kind to your neighbor" applies here. Despite the almost ritualistic circulation of this phrase when bullying arises, it needs to be mentioned again here. Simply put, if bloggers cannot treat others with respect, they need not comment. Opinions on the Radiohead Wiki are encouraged, but focus those opinions on the comments, rather than the commenter. For example, saying someone is "stupid" for liking a certain song or band is unacceptable, but the notion may be refuted and rebuttal given, on the assertion that liking the song or band is unwise. No user should feel estranged by the wiki or even threatened by its users. We strive to offer a safe and fun environment where fans of Radiohead can share their opinions and views. To keep this environment sterile and free of intimidation and harassment. Before reporting users for abuse of the blogs or blog comments Offenses and blocks Administrators have the ability to administer a block, within the parameters of the blocking policy for users who: #Insight flame wars for the sake of starting flame wars. #Belittling other users, instead of the content of their comment. #Intimidating other users. #Harassing other users. #Creating, participating in the creation of, or distributing to others, "burn" blogs. #Promotion of hate and/or prejudice of real-life of a person or peoples' ethnic groups, race, gender, religious affiliations, economical status, and sexual orientation. #Spam. #Intentional disinformation of upcoming albums/projects related to the band. #Impersonation of an administrator, police officer, or other authoritative figures. These offenses govern blogs, blog comments, and talk page discussions about blogs and blog comments. The final two points must be used with extreme discretion. Users who feel threatened by another user should report the offense to an administrator immediately on their talk page. If the user does not feel comfortable about communicating openly on a talk page, they may implore the administrator for a personal email address to report the infraction. "Useless" comments can be deleted outright, but with extreme reservation. For example, random numbers or letters in sequence. Gibberish such as "potatoes live underwater" and other unhelpful comments. Comments that contribute nothing to the discussion whatsoever are construed as "disruption" of the natural wiki process, and because of this, may justify a light ban if behavior persists despite one or more talk page warnings. "Hate blogs" or "burn blogs" are absolutely prohibited. Blogs written for the sole purpose of presenting libelous or slanderous content towards real life persons, living or dead, violates our community guidelines. Wikia's Terms of Use overrules this policy if stricter. Blogs found to contain hate towards specific individual should be immediately deleted and users banned for one month, with a detailed description on their talk page as to the severity of the issue. Second offenses warrant a permanent block from the site. Deletion Blogs and comments may be deleted if they violate any of the offenses above or: *Comments that do not contribute anything to the discussion. *Gibberish; i.e. random numbers, letters, words. *Spam. *Comments that violate copyright. *Common vandalism. *Blogs that heavily lift copyrighted text and/or images. *Blogs or comments created solely for earning badges. *Blogs that are one sentence long, or shorter, that contain no useful substance and are unlikely to spark discussion or critical commentary. Warnings and templates Block should begin at three days for the first offense, if made by an anonymous user. Logged-in users should be given a verbal warning, either longhandedly or with the Warning template. Negative comments should be deleted if they are stand alone, or if they instigated arguments. If the comments beneath the parent comment contain legitimate discussions that are off-topic or do not violate this policy any other way, the parent comment should be replaced with the Vandal template. In other words, add in favor of deleting blog comments if "insightful" discussions are in the "replies" section of that comment. The template renders this: Necroposting It is generally discouraged to "necropost," or to bump an old thread several weeks, months, or years after all discussion on it has ended. This gives every user involved a notification, and in the case of very old threads, the users who commented on it may not be active anymore—users are better off creating a new thread in these situations. Disabling comments A blog's comments may be disabled at the original author's request, if the comments are being massively vandalized, or a highly disruptive edit war or flame war is taking place. If a scenario emerges where editors need to watch the recent changes closely, and blog comments are occurring so quickly that the recent changes is flooded and the standard namespace exclusion option is not functioning or comments have polluted or caused the list not to cache, comments on a blog may be temporarily disabled. Always notify the original author of the blog if comments are disabled. Any changes made a person's blog MUST have an explanation given in the edit summary. Leaving a message on the blogger's talk page is courteous but not required. Formatting Blogs should follow the basic rules of style and formatting. Blog articles are added to the "User blog:" namespace by default, when they are created through the "Create blog post" widget on a person's blog tab. There may be times when a person aims to , but accidentally adds the text through the button or link. See "Naming" on how to resolve this. Writing style Unlike mainspace articles, blogs can be written in first person and second person points of view. Blogs can be written about nearly any appropriate subject, related to Radiohead or not. Blogs that are to be posted on the main page, should be written in a professional and interesting tone of voice and be virtually devoid of spelling and grammatical errors. All news-related posts must be written in English. Annotations, notes, and direct quotes can be written in foreign languages, but must be translated in-line. Click here for more information. Naming Blog titles should never be in all caps. Not only does this violate our policy on unnecessary emphasis, it is the equivalent of yelling in-text, and is therefore rude, and unpleasant to read. Although the content of blogs can be intended for mature audiences (within reason), curse words and profanity should not be included on the title. If a blog is intended for mature audiences, denote as much in the title or at the very top of the article. If a blog-like article is created in the main space, move the page the User blog: name space, and suppress the redirect. After successfully re-titling the page, notify the original blogger as to the new page's name, so they do not re-create the original blog, assuming it was inexplicably deleted. When moving an article to the blog namespace, follow this basic naming template: User blog:USERNAME/Blog title Categorization Do not add categories to blog articles. The only category that should be on a blog is Category:Blog posts, which is added by default when the . Category:News and Category:Community News are reserved for Radiohead Wiki staff members. Blogs added to these categories are added to the blog rolls on the main page to help broadcast important community news and game-related updates on things such as upcoming releases. Blogs should only be posted on the main page if they are of high quality verbiage, virtually devoid of spelling and grammatical errors, and have been approved by an admin and proofread by someone renowned for above-average editing and writing ability. Copyright As with all articles, talk pages, and user pages on the wiki, blogs must adhere to our copyright policy which mirrors copyright laws in the United States of America. In cases of media from other countries, the policy of that country and the United States should be considered; the stricter law should be followed. Thus, blogs should not employ any copyrighted content. This may include text, images, audio, and video. Any image currently on the wiki can be used in a blog, freely, so long as the image is properly licensed. Images uploaded exclusively for blogs, should be appropriately licensed News blogs Members of the Radiohead Wiki staff utilize the blog tool to broadcast the latest policy and style changes on the wiki. Contests, sweepstakes, and other, fun user-related projects are also included in the "news" category, as well as updates on upcoming Radiohead releases. Because these are sensitive subjects, only members of the News Team, admins, and other trusted users are permitted to categorize their blogs as news. Category:News and Category:Community News are reserved for staff blogs. Blogs added to these categories are applied to the news roll on the main page to help spread important community information quickly. Blogs should only be posted on the main page if they are of superior writing and are clear of obvious spelling and grammar problems. If a non-admin seeks to add a News blog to the main, an admin must first approve of the blog itself (writing, formatting, grammar) as well as the topic, to ensure it is suitable for the inevitably wide audience the blog would reach, being on the main page. Radiohead Wiki users can post leads for news stories on the talk page of any staff member, in the . For a list of current news blogs, see Category:News. Content Blogs can be rewritten about virtually any topic, related to Radiohead or not. It is advised that all blogs try to relate to the band or its members somehow, as blogs that are too far off topic may be considered spam. Prohibitions *Never create blogs to advertise external websites, youtube channels where walkthroughs, "let's plays," or other video content, unless specific permission is given by an admin. *Never post links to personal websites or blogs, especially if they are not Radiohead related. Blog comments should also revolve around this. *"Hate blogs" or "burn blogs" are absolutely prohibited. Blogs written for the sole purpose of presenting libelous or slanderous content towards real people, living or dead, violates our community guidelines. Wikia's Terms of Use overrules this policy if stricter. Blogs found to contain hate towards specific individuals should be immediately deleted and users banned for one month, with a detailed description on their talk page as to the severity of the issue. Second offenses warrant a permanent block from the site. *Blogs that defame a person's or peoples' race, ethnicity, gender, creed, economic status, and/or sexual orientation. How to create a blog? * * * See also *Policies and Guidelines *Style and Formatting *Blocking Policy